11
Now make confession to the Lord the God of your ancestors, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives."
12
Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "It is so; we must do as you have said.
13
But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for many of us have transgressed in this matter.
14
Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us."
15
Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levites supported them.
16
Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of families, according to their families, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter.
17
By the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.
18
There were found of the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women, of the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19
They pledged themselves to send away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.
20
Of the descendants of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21
Of the descendants of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.